How Did We Get This Animal?
by Xander and Kanja
Summary: So, I just got this random idea to create stories on how we got certain animals using myths. So, like the Aracne story, I will include a god or goddess in it. So, Enjoy!


Vivian was a beautiful young woman whom was prized for her hunting skills, her movements fluid and precise; as if she had it all lay out in her head from the start. She only hunted the best game possible. The men of her hometown fancied her for this, along with her slim and graceful figure. Vivian had rare amber eyes and dark colored hair. She wore clothes of brown and always carried a bow with a set of arrows, along with a skinning knife with a handle made of cedar. She was thin, but this allowed her to squeeze threw tight spaces when she hunted the small game.

Vivian had heard many stories of the goddess Artemis while growing up, that Artemis was swifter than the fleetest doe, striking her prey at first sight. Artemis never, ever missed the game she hunted. Ever. Some who told the story said that Artemis is an even better huntress than Vivian herself. But Vivian's pride was too great, and she failed to believe that anyone, not even a goddess, could be a better huntress than one such as her, and she was determined to prove it.

Vivian was hunting down a doe in the forest near her hometown when she got an idea.

"If Artemis is really better than one such as I," Vivian announced while nocking an arrow in place, her eyes set on the young doe she was tracking. Vivian released the arrow, which sent it hurtling into the doe's chest.

"Then I challenge the great Artemis herself-"she crouched beside the doe, one hand on its flank where the arrow pierced, the other gripping the arrow.

"To a game of hunt," Vivian concluded, pulling the arrow neatly out of the doe's flank.

A powerful wind tore through the trees, rattling their branches like an old sack of bones.

_If that is what you want_, the wind whispered. _Then that you shall get_.

Vivian grinned with pleasure, her gaze following a pure white dove.

"Tomorrow," she said. "We shall hunt for first." And with that Vivian turned around and ran to her village for some rest.

It was the day after Vivian had challenged Artemis. Now they were both gathered in the forest in which she hunted in, with the town's people watching fearfully.

Vivian was staring curiously at the way the goddess looked. Artemis had dark colored hair like Vivian, but she didn't have Vivian's rare amber eyes. Instead her eyes were a vivid blue flecked with forest green and rimmed with hazel. Artemis wore clothes of brown, and she had strapped to her back a golden bow and arrows, along with a skinning knife made of pine. She also wore a necklace with many different kinds of teeth on it, too many for Vivian to know what animals they belonged to.

Artemis glared at Vivian, whom returned it boldly with her own.

"Its time," Artemis said. Her voice seemed to have awakened the entire forest, for all the animals seemed to have burst to life with noise and sound's, including the distinctive scuffle of the nocturnal badger and the hoot of the owl. Even the town's people seemed less frightened.

"Then let us begin," Vivian replied, taking her bow off her back and nocking an arrow into place.

Vivian slowly walked into the thick undergrowth, listening carefully for any signs of life underneath it. She soon spotted a rabbit, and she quickly shot it. When Vivian went to retrieve it, she saw that it was bigger than most found in the area. The rabbit was two times taller than any she had seen, and it weighed almost a hundred pounds. Vivian was surprised it could even move at all, let alone run! Vivian put the arrow in her pouch for reuse and the rabbit in her kill-bag. When she had almost gotten the rabbit fully in the bag, Vivian heard a voice weaving thru the trees like a river around stones.

_I see you have one_, the voice whispered. _But I have four_.

Vivian started to panic. She franticly searched for another animal to fall victim to her arrows. She spotted a young but strong buck and shot an arrow at it.

_Where there is a buck_, she thought as the arrow pierced the stags flank. _There is bound to be a doe somewhere nearby this time of year._

And just as the buck collapsed, a doe followed closely by a young fawn, maybe one, two months old at the time, ran blindly towards Vivian at a high and dangerous speed. But Vivian was ready. She shot an arrow at the doe, and it fell, giving a warning bellow to the fawn before it went limp and died. The fawn became even more panicked. When it was less than a yard away, Vivian slid out her skinning knife and lined it up with the fawns flank. The fawn ran by, the knife digging deep into its flesh. Vivian let out a gasp a when the knife was wrenched out of her hand due to the fawns thick hide. The fawn let out a startled cry and collapsed, its eyes glazed with fear and dead.

Vivian retrieved the arrows from the buck and the doe. When she got to the fawn she had an idea. She gripped the fawns head in her elbow and slit its throat, slashed the knife down the fawn's cleaner flank, inflecting several shallow wounds. Then she slit the fawn's stomach open, making it spill all its innards onto the forest floor, the blood smelling of iron. But Vivian didn't care. All she cared about at the moment was that she was harming Artemis sacred animal in a painful and torturous way.

A violent tremor erupted from the forest floor, knocking over trees that once stood tall and proud, splitting the earth with deep cracks. A sudden wind tore through the fallen trees, a wind so strong Vivian was afraid it would take her with it.

_How DARE you treat nature with such disrespect!_ Artemis' voice howled. A golden arrow whizzed past Vivian's face, piercing her right ear and skinning her cheek, making both start to drip blood. Vivian's gaze followed the arrow with shock as she saw it pierce a pure white dove straight threw one of its wings. The dove let out a startled cry as the arrow continued to fly, taking the dove with it, until it finally burrowed into a tree. Vivian gasped and she ran towards the pinned dove to free it. She was stopped short as another arrow flew past her, this time piercing her left ear and skinning that cheek. It flew towards the dove's throat, penetrating it and splattering blood all over Vivian's face.

Vivian turned in the direction in which the arrows came. She located Artemis and charged at her, screaming with rage as she raised her skinning knife into the air to strike. When she was less than a rabbit's length away, Artemis, faster than the fleetest doe itself, she took the knife from Vivian and slit her throat.

Vivian collapsed, gasping for air as blood poured from her mouth and throat. Artemis crouched down beside her dying opponent, stroking the hair away from her face as if she were a lost child crying as she looked for her parents.

"Let this be a warning to you to _never_ challenge those higher than you. For you to never challenge _anyone_ to a duel that could possibly end in death," Artemis whispered into Vivian's ear, her voice full of regret.

"You could have helped your people threw the harshest of winters. But instead you did this. Know that you had brought this upon yourself, Vivian," Artemis sighed and headed towards the fawn and crouched down to stroke it, with the sun setting behind the trees in front of her and with the full moon rising behind.

"P-p-please," Vivian croaked, her face growing pale from her blood lost.

"I shall let you live," Artemis said, her gaze remaining on the fawn as she continued to stroke it." But no longer human you shall be. You shall become one with nature. You shall see how precious life in the forest really is, for you will need to hunt and eat it every day."All of a sudden the fawn sprang to life, its wounds no more. It was then did Artemis finally look at Vivian, her face engraved in pain, determination, and rage all at once.

"Now go, new beast of nature," Artemis said. "Be what you are. You are a wolf."

Vivian started to grow into something that looked like a fox, except bigger and with gray fur. Her throat wound closed and she stood up onto four big gray paws, waving her new feathery tail back and forth.

It was dark now, and out of the corner of her eye Vivian saw the full moon rise to its peak in the sky. She ran into the dark of the night, howling her melody, grieving for her pride and death as a human, and celebrating her new life as a wolf.

You can still hear the melody sung by these beautiful creatures. If you listen closely on the nights of the summer moons, you know there is only one creature that can sound so beautiful, and one creature alone. The one and only, most beautiful and majestic, gray wolf.


End file.
